The nomads of Gunung Mulu

Natural History, April, 1998 by Eric Hansen

Tingang explained to me that many of the Penan originally abandoned their nomadic existence because they wanted their children to attend school and be able to mix with other races. They also wanted to be near government health clinics so that they could get modern medicines. Before the clinics were established, the Penan bound or sutured their own wounds, and the women gave birth in the jungle.

Even if they wanted to revert to full-time nomadism in the forest, my Penan companions would find it very difficult to do so. Their villages of Batu Bungan and Long Iman are wedged between the logging concessions and Gunung Mulu National Park, so wild game is often scarce or subject to hunting restrictions. The Malaysian government encouraged the hunter-gatherers to settle down as a way to "protect" the wild, natural beauty of the park and to bring the Penan into the mainstream of society.

Penan now work as laborers and sell handicrafts to tourists, while developers and park officials seek ways to accommodate a growing stream of foreign visitors. The existing airport runway was recently extended to handle more flights, and despite denials from resort personnel, rumors circulate that the Royal Mulu Resort has plans to add many more rooms and build a monorail and golf course.

One night at our jungle camp, after I had finished my notes and put away the plant presses, Katong asked me to explain the meaning of the word golf. He had heard the word mentioned many times, but he could not imagine what it was. By the light of a tree-resin lamp, I described the felling of thousands of trees, the bulldozers at work churning up the earth and leveling the ground, and then the planting of grass, and the creation of water hazards and sand traps. I teed off using what I called "a heavy metal spoon attached to one end of a stick." I worked the ball down the fairway using a variety of clubs and sticks until I eventually managed to put the little white ball into a shallow hole at the far end of the jungle clearing.

When I finished the story they all laughed, and Tingang congratulated me on my fantastic and absurd imagination. I don't think the Penan believed a word of what I said. Leveling a vast expanse of jungle for such an activity didn't fit very well with their concept of molong. I didn't bother telling them that there were still seventeen holes left to play.